WHITE ROCK — When Glenn Miles first heard about White Rock Social Justice Film Society, he'd been "casting about for something along the same lines of inquiry and social action" he experienced in the Yukon Territory, where he wrote education policy for the NDP.
"I joined up immediately," Miles explained, "because it really appealed to me. And the fact that it was a bunch of, basically, seniors from a pretty conservative place, a fairly conservative riding in anybody's political books — they were all active and fairly liberal and progressive on issues.... It might have been a whole bunch of geezers like me — I'm 70 — but it was also a bunch of people who had a lot of social conscience and desired to see change."
Miles is in his fifth year as president of the society, which will stage its 11th annual film festival this weekend (Feb. 27-28) at First United Church in White Rock. The event will showcase five documentary films, including Inequality for All at 7 p.m.Friday, and the all-Saturday offerings of Salmon Confidential (10 a.m.), Just Eat It (1:30 p.m.), Forks Over Knives (3:15 p.m.) and Peter, Paul and Mary: Carry it On (7:15 p.m.). Details are posted at Whiterocksocialjusticefilmfestival.ca.
"We're all funded by donations, a suggested donation, and people who don't pay, they're not turned away. We figure the dissemination of information is the most important feature of what we do."
The society has created a bursary in honour of founder Jack McLachlan, who died in 2013.
"The bursary goes to a high school student writing an essay on a social-justice issue," Miles said. "Last year, the first winner was an 11th-grade girl (Ariel Zhang) who lives in Ocean Park, and it just knocked everybody's socks off — it was just so aware, so growing and inspired, it really proved up the idea of doing something like that in the first place."